If you did not live through the 1970s, you can be forgiven for thinking that the time period never really existed. In retrospect, things that happened then do not really sound very plausible now. But I can assure you that Pet Rocks were big, people danced using referee motions (the signal for traveling was big, as was the call for a 1-and-1) and Danny Bonaduce, Michael Jackson and Maureen McCormick were wholesome child stars.

But often I find myself longing for the era of innocence, excess and ridiculousness. In this age where everything is rehearsed, tested and submitted to focus groups there is something refreshing about the “let’s try something new and worry about the consequences later” ethos that seemingly pervaded the decade. 

And nowhere is this more evident than in the clothing. In the 1970s we celebrated everything ranging from bell bottoms to tunics to polyester leisure suits. Major League Baseball was no different. Flannel uniforms were as dead as the dodo and pinstripes were hanging on by a thread. In their place were double knits, horizontal stripes and every color in the rainbow. 

Mostly these changes were horrid. But I truly believe we are better off for having tried these. How boring it would be if every team wore pinstripes at home and gray uniforms on the road! So, with great glee, I proudly present the Top 10 Ugliest Uniforms of the 1970s. 

10. 1970 Pirates Home Pullover 

In the 1960s, the Pirates home uniform featured a white sleeveless jersey over a black long sleeved shirt. This is a classic baseball look. In 1970, the team introduced an alternate home uniform that featured two horrible things that would soon become common. The jerseys had no buttons and the pants had no belt. This is actually a pretty tame version of this style, especially compared to the baby blue road uniforms that seemingly half of the teams in the league soon adopted. The Pirates were saving up their truly gruesome look for later in the decade. 

Favorite Fantasy Season – Manny Sanguillen - .325-7-61-63-2. It’s not every day that a catcher finishes third in the league in batting. 

9. 1973 Athletics All Green 

In the 1960s, the A’s anticip ated the 70s by wearing yellow sleeveless jerseys over green shirts. That was garish but at least it was a baseball look. In 1972, they switched over to the Pirates look and in 1973 they had alternate road jerseys that were either all yellow or all green. It is an insult to call these softball uniforms as softball unis were infinitely more classy. The only thing more revolting than these clothes was the fact that the A’s won back-to-back-to-back championships in them. 

Favorite Fantasy Season – Reggie Jackson - .293-32-117-99-22. Rusty Staub still deserved the World Series MVP, though. 

When most people think of the Baltimore Orioles of 1971, the first thing that jumps to mind is the pitching staff comprised of four 20-game winners. Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer became the last quartet of teammates to win 20 games in one season. Unfortunately, they did it wearing an alternate home jersey that featured both orange tops and pants. Amazingly, this was not the worst look first baseman Boog Powell would wear in the decade. Fittingly, the Orioles lost the World Series that year to the Pirates in their pullovers. 

Favorite Fantasy Season – Jim Palmer – 20 wins, 2.68 ERA, 184 SO, 1.195 WHIP. Palmer also added 7 runs, 9 RBIs and a stolen base. 

7. 1972 Braves Blue Sleeve Pullover 

In 1972, the Braves switched from a traditional pinstripe home, road gray look to the pullovers for both home and away. The home pullover was particularly ugly with blue sleeves “highlighted” with some kind of feather. The finishing touch was the new two-tone hat with the lower case “a” in cursive script. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run mark in this clown outfit. The horror, the horror. 

Favorite Fantasy Season – Marty Perez - .228-1-28-33-0. And Perez played in 141 games and made 136 starts. 

This one was so bad they only wore it once. The Phillies planned to make their all-burgundy uniforms their official gear for all Saturday home games. They wore them in a game against the Expos that they lost 10-5 and never wore them again. You can tell the decade was drawing to a close. If this uniform debuted in 1971 they would have worn them for at least three seasons. 

Favorite Fantasy Season – Mike Schmidt - .253-45-114-109-9. Also hit a double and a triple in the All-Star game and won his fourth straight Gold Glove Award. 

5. 1972 Padres All Mustard

A lot of people point to the brown and mustard fast food uniform as the ugliest one by the Padres but for me this one is even worse. At least that one was a road jersey paired with white pants. The 1972 one was used for both home and away games, with the only difference being the name on the front. These had Padres at home and San Diego on the road. There was just no break from the mustard look for this team. Perhaps that is why they posted a 58-95 record.

Favorite Fantasy Season – Enzo Hernandez - .195-1-15-33-24. Hernandez played in 114 games and had 329 at-bats.

4. 1977 Pirates Mix and Match

After having just one home and one road uniform since 1971, the Pirates decided that was not nearly enough. This year they debuted polyester pinstripes, all yellow and all black. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they also decided to mix and match the tops and bottoms to create additional bad uniforms. They were all awful and nobody looked worse in these various costumes than Kent Tekulve. I wanted an all black look for the scarecrow but seemingly all visual evidence has been destroyed.

Favorite Fantasy Season – Rich Gossage – 11 Wins, 26 saves, 1.62 ERA, 151 strikeouts, 0.955 WHIP. In his only season in Pittsburgh, Gossage pitched in 72 games, all in relief, and hurled 133 innings. His 151 strikeouts were the sixth most by a relief pitcher in the last 50 years.

3. 1975 Astros Horizontal Stripes

The shock was not that the Astros had, to use a term from the day, the most out of sight uniforms in MLB, but rather that it took until 1975 for them to fulfill their destiny. After all, they took their name from the space program and they played in the first dome, which was dubbed “the eighth wonder of the world”. It wasn’t enough to have horizontal stripes, they had tri-color stripes. It wasn’t enough to have a star, they had a giant blue star superimposed on the stripes. It wasn’t enough to have numbers on the back of the uniforms, they had them on their pant leg, too. Looking at a picture of one player wearing this does not give the same effect as seeing an entire 25-man roster wearing it day after day.

Favorite Fantasy Season – Bob Watson - .324-18-85-67-3. How much fun was hitting in the Astrodome? Watson batted .276/.332/.424 at home and .358/.406/.546 on the road. Watson made MLB history in 1975 by scoring the 1,000,000^th run in history. He sprinted home from second after teammate Milt May hit a HR, barely beating Dave Concepcion, who had also homered. This was a huge deal at the time.

2. 1975 Indians Pinkish Red

In 1974 the Indians introduced an alternate red jersey to their uniform collection. The following year they did it one better by adding red pants, too. There are a bunch of interesting fellows who played on the 1975 Tribe, but good luck finding any of them in the red pants. In addition to Powell, this team featured Buddy Bell, Oscar Gamble and his legendary afro, George Hendrick, Rico Carty, Fritz Peterson, Dennis Eckersley and both Gaylord and Jim Perry. I bet that an autographed picture featuring Boog, Oscar and Gaylord in the red pants would fetch about 10 grand on eBay.

Favorite Fantasy Season – Frank Robinson - .237-9-24-19-0. Not much to choose from on this team from a fantasy perspective, so I picked Robinson, who was the team’s manager this season. He had a .271 ISO and a 153 OPS+ in 118 at-bats.

1. 1976 White Sox Short Pants

OK, just about any White Sox uniform could qualify for this list. When it comes to uniforms this franchise is simply cursed. But there’s no way you could top the grown men playing at the top of their profession in short pants. The collars on the shirt and the ugly hats are just a bonus. The good news for the players is that they only had to wear the shorts for three days.

Favorite Fantasy Player – Jesse Jefferson – 2 wins, 8.52 ERA, 30 strikeouts, 2.053 WHIP. In 62.1 innings, Jefferson allowed 42 walks. The real notable thing about this team was that Minnie Minoso came back at age 50, played three games and went 1-for-8. He smacked a single to LF off Sid Monge for his first hit in the majors since 1964.

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written by Bob Jack, September 18, 2009

I don't think, many of these uniforms belong on your list and are reaches. Yes, the Sox short pants are considered the worst, so that's cool. But the Astros uni had its charms and people still miss it, The Pds uni was great, I liked it, the Prates and Braves uni were fine and I could ive with the Orange O's,. Rather than worst uniforms, these seems to be the only ones you knew about and had to fill a list. Do some re4search and you'll find worse.

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written by doublev, September 04, 2009

I think the Giants have the best uniform today...simple yet stylish.

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written by JAson3212, June 09, 2009

O's uni's were awesome.

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written by Brian Joura, May 17, 2009

Hey Robert I agree with you completely on the black jerseys. It can't be any fun to wear those when the temps go above 90.

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Ugliest uniforms of the 2000\'s
written by Robert Wayne, May 13, 2009

Actually, I like the colors of some of those '70s uniforms. Growing up as an Astros fan, I'm a bit prejudiced in their favor and I like the 1972 Padres uniforms too. What I hate today is the drab black jerseys that teams like Colorado and Florida delight in wearing or when players insist on wearing pants that look like they were stolen out of their big brother's closet. Baseball pants were meant to end a few inches below the knee, not dragging the ground.

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written by Jennifer, April 18, 2009

The White Sox now have the coolest uniforms in baseball. Took some time to get there but they certainly are the best

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written by soxfan, April 09, 2009

Hey, easy with the sox comments, theyre uniforms now arent to shabby.

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I Agree
written by Demetairs Bell, March 31, 2009

Good God some of those uniforms were hideous! The Indians, Orioles and Phillies were the worst. :X : I guess I'd have to include my beloved Twins. :woohoo: The A's weren't that bad, they just needed to do away with yellow from head to toe.

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written by Fritz, March 31, 2009

Don't forget the Athletics white cleats. We laugh at guys who wear white cleats at our baseball and softball games. Hell, I did not even know you could still buy them anywhere. Simply aweful.

Great list by the way!

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written by Brian Joura, March 31, 2009

Yes, the Pirates wore those hats. If I remember correctly several NL teams did to celebrate the league's centennial. I know the Mets wore them on special days while the Pirates wore them every day.

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written by Brian Joura, March 31, 2009

Hi Eric - thanks for reading and commenting!

Yes, the Cubs had powder blue unis in the mid 70s. They also had a small picture of a cub on the sleeve.

Check out this site - http://exhibits.baseballhallof...m#database - which is what I used for this article.

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written by D-Backs Blog, March 31, 2009

I'm going to have to go with the White Sox. Not just because of the shorts, but the jersey's were hideous too. They look like womens volleyball players/mlb umpires... I can't decide!

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Padres
written by Tony Cincotta, March 31, 2009

I am glad to see the Padres included. The uniforms later inspired Burger Kings employee uniforms.

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President
written by Alex, March 31, 2009

Brian, As an Orioles fan, thank you for including these god awful 1971 unis on your list. It is not often that the Orioles make any top 10 lists. Also, thanks for including the Phillies uni of 1979. That is also hideous. If I recall correctly, the 1977 Pirates has the pianters caps. Didn't someone else have those as well ??

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written by Eric, March 30, 2009

Didn't the Cubs have a powder blue uniform with a big Cub face?

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written by Brian Joura, March 30, 2009

Thanks for reading and commenting Jonathan!

The Orioles top by itself wasn't awful but the matching pants... At least they had their Halloween costume all ready that year.

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written by Jonathan, March 30, 2009

I don't think the Orioles uniform is all that bad. The thing I remember about the A's is that their home whites were always whiter than anybody else. They were like a walking advertisement for Clorox bleach. I think that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays could have easily made this list too.

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Thanks
written by Vince, March 30, 2009

Thanks Brian, hopefully we can get some of our users to your site too. If you come up with other top ten lists, remember our site.

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written by Brian Joura, March 30, 2009

Thanks Vince - I submitted to your site.

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Great List!
written by Vince, March 30, 2009

Dugg for being an awesome collections of bad 70's fashion. This is a really great top ten list, I think that I would have to have the Astros Unis as #1. They are classic, especially because I have a Nolan Ryan baseball card with him in it. Anyone can post their own to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.

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threio\'s dugout
written by threio, March 29, 2009

You hit the No. 1 right on the head. Astros stripes were kinda of cool in the 70s. Frankly I don't remember the Phils wearing those red pants--lol

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